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Table of Contents
Title
Carbon and Beans
Broad Question
How does the kind of liquid given to plants effect the growth?
Specific Question
What is the effect of carbonated water on the height of a plant?Hypothesis
It is hypothesized that the bean plants given carbonated water will grow the bean plants given regular tap water.Rationale
I think this because according to "Benefits to Plants" carbon dioxide helps plants to grow faster and stronger than plants that are given regular water. It states that there have been many experiments that conclude increased carbon dioxide in the air of the vicinity of a plant will prompt the growth of the plant. A quote from "Benefits to Plants" says that "Literally thousands of experiments have conclusively demonstrated that enriching the air with carbon dioxide stimulates the growth and development of nearly all plants." Because if the air enriched with carbon dioxide, I thought that perhaps if the water is enriched with carbon dioxide the outcome might be the same.
Graph of Hypothesis
Variables
Independent Variable:
The Concentration of CO2 in water.Dependent Variable:
Height of the plants from the dirt to the tallest point (cm).Variables That Need To Be Controlled:
1. Water leaking out the bottom of the pots2. Amount of dirt that the plants are planted in
3. Size of ziploc bags
4. Brand of carbonated water
5. Temperature of the water
6. Amount of sunlight available to the plants
Vocabulary List That Needs Explanation
CO2 is an abbreviation for the element Carbon Dioxide.General Plan
Potential Problems And Solutions
It is possible the plants could die from lack of sunlight, or they could be knocked over by a fellow student. A solution to this problem is to place the plants in a safe area where the chance of getting killed or knocked over is the least likely than other area in the greenhouse, and there is a preferable amount of sunlight for each plant.Safety Or Environmental Concerns
There are no safety or environmental concerns.Experimental Design
This experiment will be set up and conducted in Mr. Yahna’s greenhouse. Twenty plants will be planted in pots with a circumference of approx. 26 cm and a diameter of approx. 8.5 cm. All the plants will be given 25 ml of regular water from Mr. Yahna’s sink and after they sprout ten of them will be given water with 1000 ppm of carbon dioxide and the other ten plants will continue to be watered with tap water that has approx. 10 ppm of carbon dioxide. When the ten plants that will be given carbonated water sprout, they will be put into a plastic bag to prevent the carbon dioxide from leaking out the dirt. After three weeks the height of the plants will be measured from the dirt to the tallest point of the plant.Resources and Budget Table
Detailed Procedure
1. Gather the materials needed to conduct the experiment.2. Label 10 pots “10 ppm A”, “10 ppm B” and so on. Label 10 more pots with “1000 ppm A”, “1000 ppm B” and so on.
3. Fill all 20 pots with 5.5 centimeters of dirt
4. Split the 20 plants into two groups and water each plant with 25 milliliters of regular tap water.
5. Once the plants germinate start watering the plants labeled “1000 ppm A” and so on with 25 milliliters of carbonated water.
6. Immediately after watering the germinated plants labeled “1000 ppm A” and so on completely enclose them in a 26.9cm x 29.5cm ziploc bag so that they are sitting at the bottom of the bag upright and the opening of the bag is at the top.
7. After 3 weeks of growing the plants and watering them with the amount instructed above every few days, measure the height of the plant from the dirt to the tallest point of the plant.
8. Record the height of the plants and create a column graph from the data.
Data Table
Data Analysis
Graphs
Photos
Results
The average height of the bean plants given water with 10 ppm of carbon dioxide was 10.2 centimeters. The bean plants that were given water with 1000 ppm of carbon dioxide had an average height of 9.3 centimeters. The plants given water with 10 ppm of carbon dioxide is 0.9 centimeters taller than the plants given water with 1000 ppm of carbon.Conclusion
The experiment was conducted to determine the effect of carbonated water on the height of a plant. The results show that with less carbon dioxide in the water, the taller the plants will grow.The plants that were given water with 10 ppm of carbon dioxide had an average height of 10.2 centimeters, and the plants that were given 1000 ppm of carbon dioxide had an average height of 9.3 centimeters.Discussion
What is the effect of carbonated water on the height of a plant was the experiment question. The results answered the question, and concluded that the effect of carbonated water on the height of a plant is that it is only slightly shorter than plants that were not given carbonated water. It had been hypothesized that the plants given carbonated water would be two times as tall as the plants given regular water, but the results showed otherwise.The trial one plant given water with 10 ppm of carbon dioxide was 10 centimeters tall after 3 weeks of growing, and the trial one plant given water with 1000 ppm of carbon dioxide was 5 centimeters tall. The 10 ppm plant in trial three had a height of 10 centimeters tall after three weeks, and the 1000 ppm plant in trial three had a height of 9 centimeters, and for the last trial, number five, the 10 ppm plant was 13 centimeters tall and the 1000 ppm plant was 11 centimeters tall. The average for the plants given water with 10 ppm of carbon dioxide was 10.2, and for the plants given water with 1000 ppm of water was 9.3 centimeters. No patterns or trends were noticed within the data or observations, and the relationship between the concentration of the carbon dioxide and the changes between the height of the plants is weak. There was also a weak cause and effect.
The data that was collected varied a lot which caused no pattern or trend to be noticed. Two out of the five trials that were conducted showed that the plants given water with 1000 ppm of carbon dioxide had a greater height after three weeks than the plants given water with 10 ppm of carbon dioxide, but the other three trials showed that it was the plants given water with 10 ppm of carbon dioxide grew taller. Through the research it was found that a plant in the vicinity of air with rich carbon dioxide will grow faster and develop more quickly than a plant without plentiful carbon dioxide, but in the experiment conducted, the water was abundant with carbon dioxide, not the air, so that difference between the two experiments could have changed the results to something different.
There were a few challenges that had to be fixed during the experiment. Only five of the plants given water with 1000 ppm of carbon dioxide sprouted from the dirt, but all ten of the other plants had sprouted, so it was changed that there would only be five trials instead of ten. Once while watering the plants, a small amount of water leaked out the bottom of the pots of the plants that were given water with 10 ppm of carbon dioxide and to solve that problem plastic bags were put around those plants as well as the others, and the amount of water that was leaked out the bottom was estimated as 5 milliliters and was given to those plants. There were a few qualities that could have been done differently while conducting this experiment, like all the plants could have been put into plastic ziploc bags from the beginning, not from halfway through the experiment. There was no specialized information or technology needed or used to perform this experiment.
The knowledge gained through this experiment could be beneficial to the use or people of this society because in the future there might be a science experiment that must be conducted quickly with a plant. This experiment shows that rich carbon dioxide is slightly less effective than only water with 10 ppm of carbon dioxide, so the scientist would know that using water with plentiful carbon dioxide in it to water the plants will not necessarily speed up the process of growing taller faster, but many other experiments show that if the air is abundant in carbon dioxide, it will develop in a shorter period of time. With the knowledge created by the experiment performed, it may lead to more questions. Such as does the amount of carbon dioxide in the dirt of a growing plant affect the height of the plant?
Background Research
Carbonated water (also known as club soda, soda water, sparkling water, seltzer water, or fizzy water) is water into which carbon dioxide gas under pressure has been dissolved, a process that causes the water to become effervescent.
Carbonated water is the defining ingredient of carbonated soft drinks. The process of dissolving carbon dioxide in water is called carbonation.
(Note: in order to be labeled "mineral water," as opposed to "spring water," the water must contain at least 250 parts per million (ppm) naturally occurring dissolved mineral solids.)
Plants require carbon dioxide to grow and why not help them by increasing the level of carbon dioxide? Normally, this is something that is undesirable, since carbon dioxide is the original greenhouse gas, as our neighbouring planet Venus can testify. But in a controlled, genuine greenhouse environment, there is no real reason why the level of carbon dioxide should not be enhanced in some way.
Indeed, tests have shown that increasing the level of carbon dioxide in a greenhouse to 550 ppm will accelerate plant growth by 30 - 40 %. The natural level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is around 450 ppm, having increased from about 250 ppm in the last ice-age, so this slight increase may not appear significant at first sight. The point of the matter is that the level of carbon dioxide in the average greenhouse with the ventilation system closed will drop sharply due to uptake by the plants and will lie around 150 - 200 ppm if nothing is done about it. In summer the ventilation system will be open and the fresh air circulation will augment the level to a useful degree.
Carbon dioxide is a natural chemical compound that consists of two oxygen atoms and a carbon atom It is a gas at standard temperature and pressure and exists in Earth's atmosphere in this state, as a trace gas at a concentration of 0.039 per cent by volume.
As part of the carbon cycle, plants, algae, and cyanobacteria use lightenergy to photosynthesizecarbohydrate from carbon dioxide and water, with oxygen produced as a waste product.[2] However, photosynthesis cannot occur in darkness and at night some carbon dioxide is produced by plants during __respiration__.
(presumed carbon dioxide concentration is about 1,000 ppm)
References
Abstract
The purpose of this experiment was to test the effect of carbonated water on the height of a plant after three weeks. It was hypothesized that plants given 1000 ppm carbonated water would be twice as tall as the plants given 10 ppm carbonated water. Ten bean seeds were planted in dirt and grown for three weeks. After five plants sprouted, they were given 1000 ppm of carbon dioxide and the other five continued to be given 10 ppm carbonated water. All plants were put into ziploc bags to prevent loss of water and/or carbon dioxide. The results showed that plants given 10 ppm carbonated water grew a mean height of 10.2 cm, and plants given 1000 ppm carbonated water grew a mean height of 9.3 cm. The experiment showed that plants given water that was less enriched with carbon dioxide grew taller than plants given water with richer carbon dioxide.